For all the kids out there who’re looking to learn how to become a writer, or be a better writer, I would say the best thing I can tell you to do is just to read, read, read. If you go to the library and borrow books, or go to the bookstore, read during the summer, when you’re not in school — anything you can do to just keep reading.
Find the books that you really love, and read them over and over. I’ve read Harriet the Spy millions of times, and The Great Gilly Hopkins and all of my favorites. You’ll start to notice that you just begin to kind of internalize story, and just from reading you’ll learn about beginnings, middles and ends and some of the things that you’re also learning about in school. That will all come naturally if you just keep reading books.